April 19, 2025
It seems like every CFO is a Neanderthal if they do not pursue Finance Automation. It will regularly feature in the Finance Transformation 2025 Top Priorities Survey. Finance Automation is critical and must be done without delay, they cry.
At Finance Transformation Consulting we encourage all Clients to establish the facts before selecting any Finance Business System. It does not matter whether you are selecting a new Finance ERP, a Document Management Tool or harnessing the latest in what AI has to offer we always say Baseline Finance First.
Those that do not understand their History are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Get your own house in order first, know your Finance Baseline before considering any Finance System Selection exercise. Do not reach for the RFP before you have a Baseline of People, Process and Technology with all the associated Performance Metrics.
If you do not believe me then go ahead and make the classic Finance Systems Strategy mistake, go ahead make it. What is it?
Go ahead and just google Software suppliers and then Book a Demo. While you are there just go ahead and open your Bank Account, give away the Password! You may as well as you just went into a gunfight armed with a plastic fork.
According to my research the first use of an 'accounting document' to record a transaction between a buyer and seller originated in Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago! It acquired its English name "Invoice", which we are familiar with today, from the French word 'envoi' during the Middle Ages. as you can see from the image above the Mesopotamians invented the 'Tablet' long before Apple!
From these ancient beginnings at the very heart of civilisation sprang an Industry which today provides employment to hundreds of thousands of people across the World, processing millions of Invoices everyday.
It is at the very heart of every Business on Earth. All Businesses will perform 3 primary actions in which they will buy, create and sell. Two of these actions lead to the creation of either a Supplier or Customer Invoice, driving the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable process respectively in every Business on Earth.
It is these 2 Processes, at the heart of Finance, drivers of more Finance Shared Services than any other Finance Process that consume the Finance Automation Industry.
They will religiously tell every CFO you must Automate until they are brow beaten into submission and the Paper Invoice is no more. Indeed they are now supported by Policy Makers at Government level who will shortly introduce eInvoicing. I have already made my Submission to pass on my experience and knowledge with a few valid suggestions.
All in all the days of the humble Paper Invoice seem to be numbered so should you the CFO be suddenly ringing up your Accounts Payable Manager to ask have we adopted 100% Finance Automation? Have we banished Paper to the Dark Ages or are we still 'lagging' behind our competitors?
Well you could do...but surely as CFO there are more pressing priorities? Don't tell me you react to Surveys? No, of course you don't but you do always have a One Pager of your Finance Baseline in your back pocket?
No?
Then reach out and let me help you to not repeat the mistakes of History.
Best Regards,